Death by Train in Pelhamville While Fighting in 1893

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The morning began quite beautifully on Friday, July 14, 1893.  Both Mount Vernon and the little adjacent settlement known as Pelhamville were bustling.  Indeed, the area around the border between the two communities along the New Haven Main Line railroad tracks was particularly busy that summer morning.

There was new construction underway nearby in view of the railroad tracks.  John Deveaugh was one of five carpenters standing on scaffolding working away on that new construction that morning.  Additionally, a number of women including one known as "Mrs. Brachman" were working away in homes scattered near the railroad tracks in the area.

At about 8:00 a.m., many in the area heard shouts.  In fact, they heard angry shouts.  John Deveaugh and his fellow carpenters looked in the direction of the noise.  Several women, including Mrs. Brachman, stepped outside to see what was happening.

Two young men, both about 25 years old, were on the railroad tracks shouting angrily at each other.  The pair had been walking from Mount Vernon toward Pelhamville along the railroad tracks when they stopped and began to argue opposite Holler's ice houses.  Soon, the bigger of the two removed his jacket, tossed it aside, and took a swing at the smaller man.

The fight began.

The men began swinging wildly at each other.  Though it was 8:00 in the morning, they seemed obviously drunk as they quarreled and fought.  The pair grabbed each other in a clinch as they fought.  The five carpenters and the local women watched the pair grapple.

Then came the shrill shriek of a steam locomotive whistle. . . . . 

The New York bound New Haven Express Train No. 12 was bearing down on the two men.  The carpenters began screaming warnings to the pair from their scaffolds.  The train engineer blew the steam whistle repeatedly and applied the air brakes.  The violent squeal of the train wheels sliding on the iron railroad tracks filled the air.  The women watching then "shrieked in terror."

The pair fighting on the tracks were so engrossed in their anger and their fight they did not realize that the train was bearing down on them.  It was only when the train was about five hundred feet away from them that they first realized their danger.  They loosened their grip on each other.  Then, as the onlookers watched in terror, the smaller man grabbed the bigger man again. . . .

The express train barreled into the pair nearly at full speed.  The bigger man was thrown headlong into the air so high that he struck the telegraph wires strung adjacent to the tracks, then fell to the embankment below and tumbled down the slope "among great rocks that lined its base."  The smaller man simply disappeared as if swallowed by the massive steam locomotive.

The carpenters and women scrambled to the scene.  Soon, as a result of the commotion, others appeared.  The bigger man was found at the foot of the embankment.  He was dead with every limb shattered.  The smaller man, however, was nowhere to be found.

A gathering crowd began searching for the smaller man.

It was a young boy who found the first clue.  The boy found one of the man's legs "under a pear tree near the scene of the accident."  It was quite some time before trainmen found the mangled remnants of the body of the smaller man beneath one of the railroad cars.  According to one report, "The fragments were taken to New Rochelle."

Soon, tongues were wagging.  All were talking about how the smaller man grabbed the bigger one as the train bore down upon the pair.  It seems the smaller man had not grabbed the bigger man to hold him in place and die together.  Rather, it was an attempt to save the life of the bigger man.  According to John Deveaugh "I saw him seize his companion just as the train struck them.  He may have intended to save him, but they had been fighting the minute before."  Mrs. Brachman also saw the small man grab the big one.  She said "I thought maybe he was trying to save the other's life."

Who were these men?  What was their story?  

Newspapers throughout the United States reported on the terrible quarrel and the gruesome deaths that resulted.  Initially, they reported that the bigger man whose body was tossed into the telegraph wires and down the embankment was "Thomas Sweeney of Kingsbridge."  The reports were wrong.  It turned out that the man was named "Wier" and was from Wakefield.  The smaller man whose mangled body was found beneath one of the railroad cars was Thomas Burke of Mount Vernon.

Their story was this.  The evening before their deaths, Thomas Burke stole $2.00 from his landlady, a woman known as Mrs. McLaughlin.  It was believed that the two men used the stolen money to get drunk in Mount Vernon during the overnight and early morning hours.  According to one report, the men "were so intoxicated that they narrowly escaped arrest" in Mount Vernon overnight.  The pair apparently were still intoxicated when the express train ended their quarrel on the tracks in a most gruesome fashion.

There have been, of course, many deaths and injuries on the railroad tracks of the New Haven Main Line that pass through Pelham during the last 167 years.  For many decades the railroad tracks were a principal pathway for people traveling back and forth between the communities of Pelham and Mount Vernon.  The horrific pair of deaths that occurred on the tracks in the little settlement of Pelhamville on July 14,1893, however, remain to this day among the most terrible such accidents in the history of Pelham.

Ca. 1893 Steam Locomotive Train Likely Similar to the One

that Killed Two Men at the Pelhamville Border on July 14,

1893.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

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"KILLED BY A TRAIN WHILE FIGHTING.
-----
Thomas Sweeney and an Unknown Companion Mangled Near Pelhamville, N. Y.
-----
UNMINDFUL OF THE WHISTLE.
-----
It Is Thought That One of the Men Saw the Danger and Tried to Save His Antagonist.
-----
WOMEN SAW THE TRAGEDY.
-----
[BY TELEGRAPH TO THE HERALD.]

MOUNT VERNON, N. Y., July 14, 1893.  --  Two men who had been drinking chose the tracks of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, half a mile east of here, to settle a quarrel this morning.  They clinched and paid no heed to an approaching express train, which proved itself a terrible peacemaker.

One of the men was Thomas Sweeney of Kingsbridge.  The other is as yet unidentified.  Their mangled bodies are in Davis' morgue at New Rochelle.

Half way between here and Pelhamville Holler's ice houses stand on one side of the track.  Employes there noticed the two men walking east on the tracks about eight o'clock in the morning.  They were quarrelling and passed around a curve, but shortly returned.  They were talking more heatedly, and then Sweeney took off his coat and struck at his companion.  They grappled, and then seemingly agreed on a temporary truce.

WOMEN WITNESS THE TRAGEDY.

Each then ate some cherries which one of them carried in a box, but the quarrel began again in so boisterous a way that five carpenters working on a new house three hundred yards from the tracks rested their tools to watch the men.  Their loud words also attracted women from their homes near the icehouse.

The men clinched and occasionally struck at each other.  They were very drunk.  Suddenly the spectators were startled by the shrill whistle of the New Haven express train, No. 12.  It was bearing down upon the struggling men.  The carpenters called out warning from their scaffolds and the women who looked on shrieked in terror.

The train was within five hundred feet of the men, when they appeared to cease their quarrel and realize their danger.  The engineer had applied the air brakes, but the train was coming swiftly on.  The men did not attempt to leave the track, though they had loosened their grip on each other.  The train was within an engine's length of them, when the smaller man again seized Sweeney.  Then the train struck them.

Sweeny [sic] was tossed headlong over the embankment.  His body struck the telegraph wires and pitched foremost down the bank among great rocks that lined its base.  Every limb was shattered.

GROUND INTO FRAGMENTS.

At first search for the other man was vain, but a boy found one of his legs under a pear tree near the scene of the accident.  Trainmen later on took the remainder of his body from under one of the cars.  The fragments were taken to New Rochelle.

'The big man was pitched as high as the telegraph wires, while the other man disappeared under the cars,' said John Deveaugh, one of the carpenters.  'I saw him seize his companion just as the train struck them.  He may have intended to save him, but they had been fighting the minute before.'

Mrs. Brachman also saw the smaller man take hold of the other.

'I thought,' she said, 'maybe he was trying to save the other's life.'


Each of the men were [sic] about twenty-five years old and had been in Mount Vernon early this morning.  They were so intoxicated that they narrowly escaped arrest.  They visited the railroad yards, where Sweeney told a workman that he had a mother and two sisters living in New York.

Coroner A. J. Mixsell will hold the inquest on Monday."

Source:  KILLED BY A TRAIN WHILE FIGHTING -- Thomas Sweeney and an Unknown Companion Mangled Near Pelhamville, N. Y. -- UNMINDFUL OF THE WHISTLE -- It Is Thought That One of the Men Saw the Danger and Tried to Save His Antagonist -- WOMEN SAW THE TRAGEDY, N.Y. Herald, Jul. 15, 1893, p. 5, col. 6.

"STOLE TO GO ON HIS FINAL DRUNK.
-----

The two men killed by an express train Friday, at Pelhamville, N. Y., while fighting on the track have been identified.

The body supposed to be that of Thomas Sweeney, of Kingsbridge, is that of a man named Wier, of Wakefield.  The other dead man is Thomas Burke of Mount Vernon.  He stole $2 from Mrs. McLaughlin, his landlady, and it is supposed he and Wier became drunk with the money."

Source:  STOLE TO GO ON HIS FINAL DRUNK, N.Y. Herald, Jul. 17, 1893, p. 9, col. 5.

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Massive Prohibition Raid in 1927 Netted Four Bootleggers and 225 Kegs of Beer

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The work was back-breaking, almost certainly.  Early in the day on an early spring morning in May, 1927, four men in Troy, New York loaded a railroad freight car with thousands of pounds of freight consigned for delivery to "Reilly" at Pelham Station in Pelham, New York nearly 150 miles away.  As they worked, a sneaky fellow lurked nearby watching the men go about their work.  Once their work was done, the train departed.  So did the sneaky fellow.

Early on Thursday, May 26, the freight train sounded its whistled and pulled into Pelham Station where it uncoupled the freight car onto a freight line side track.  There the freight car sat for much of the day as another sneaky fellow lurked nearby, watching.

Late in the day, four young men appeared at Pelham Station with the necessary papers and accepted the freight consignment from the freight agent in the tiny little freight office that once was accessible via the western end of the station.  The men pulled two trucks near the freight car and began their own back-breaking work.  As Federal Prohibition Officer Curtin lurked nearby, the men unloaded from the freight car 225 kegs of beer and loaded it all onto the two trucks.

Quite cannily, Officer Curtin allowed the four men to finish off-loading all 225 kegs.  Once all the work had been completed, Officer Curtin sprang on the four men.  He arrested Clay Griffen (of 22 Goling St., Yonkers, NY), William McCann and John Murphy (both of 40 Palisade Avenue, Yonkers, NY), and Maurice Davis (of 558 Lafayette St., Brooklyn, NY).

Officer Curtin seems to have been as befuddled as many regarding the multiplicity of villages within the Town of Pelham.  He hauled the four bootleggers off to the Pelham Heights Police Department to have them jailed.  There he was told that he had made the arrests on the Village of North Pelham side of the railroad tracks and would have to take the prisoners to the Village of North Pelham lockup.  He took them to the Town Hall lockup where the four men were jailed.

That night local Justice Anthony M. Menkel imposed bail of $1,000.00 each pending their appearance before the United States Prohibition Commissioner in New York City.  The two trucks of beer kegs were taken to New York City the same night.

Officials believed that Pelham Station was the offload point for a large delivery of beer that was scheduled for distribution and sale in the City of Yonkers.  Prohibition violators, it seems, had been stopped -- once again -- in the little Town of Pelham.

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"Prohibition Raid Nets 225 Kegs Of Beer; Four Men Held
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Federal Officers Trail Freight Car of Liquor From Troy to Pelham, Quartet Held In $1000 Bail Each
-----

Trailing a freight carload of alleged alcoholic beer from Troy, N.Y., to Pelham station a U.S. Prohibition officer seized 225 kegs of the beverage and two motor trucks at the New Haven main station here yesterday and four men into custody on charges of possessing and transporting liquor.  They were arrested after they had unloaded the freight car of its burden and had loaded the beer on the motor trucks.  Judge Anthony M. Menkel held the quartet in $1,000 bail each last night pending their appearance before the U.S. Prohibition Commissioner in New York City, Tuesday morning.  The seized trucks and liquor were taken to New York last night.

The defendants are Clay Griffen, of No. 22 Goling St., Yonkers; William McCann, of No. 40 Palisade avenue, Yonkers; John Murphy, of No. 40 Palisade avenue, Yonkers, and Maurice Davis, of No. 558 Lafayette street, Brooklyn.

After watching all day, Officer Curtin waited until both trucks were loaded and ready to move before he showed himself.  He then placed the quartet under arrest and took them to Pelham Heights police headquarters.  There it was explained that the arrest was made in North Pelham and the action shifted to the other village.  The four were locked up at the Town Hall.

Judge Anthony M. Menkel fixed bail at $1,000 each.  Morris Friedman, of No. 15 Overlook Terrace, Yonkers, was bondsmen for the four.

According to a statement made by the prohibition officer the beer was consigned to Pelham in the name of Reilly.  The first name was not given.  The name however is believed to have been fictitious.  He expressed an opinion that it was intended for distribution in Yonkers."

Source:  Prohibition Raid Nets 225 Kegs Of Beer; Four Men Held -- Federal Officers Trail Freight Car of Liquor From Troy to Pelham, Quartet Held In $1000 Bail Each, The Pelham Sun, May 27, 1927, Vol. 18, No. 13, p. 1, col. 2.

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I have written extensively about Pelham's struggles with Prohibition and the enforcement of the unpopular laws that it spawned. See: 

Tue., Jan. 30, 2018:  Visit to the Wrong House Uncovered Massive Pelham Manor Bootlegging During Prohibition.

Wed., Jan. 03, 2018:  The Massive Illegal Still Discovered at 137 Corlies Avenue During Prohibition in 1932.

Wed., Jun. 21, 2017:  The Infamous Ash Tree Inn of Pelham Manor and its Prohibition Violations During the 1920s.

Thu., Feb. 02, 2017:  Bootleggers Began to Feel the Heat in Pelham in 1922.

Mon., Dec. 26, 2016:  Pelham Stood Alone in Westchester When It Voted to Go Dry in 1896. 

Mon., Aug. 22, 2016:  Pelham, It Seems, Became a Hotbed of Bootlegging and Illegal Stills During Prohibition.

Mon., Jul. 06, 2015:  Police Raided a Massive 300-Gallon Illegal Liquor Still on Corlies Avenue in 1932.  

Fri., Jun. 19, 2015:  More Liquor Raids in Pelham During Prohibition in the 1920s.

Wed., Jun. 17, 2015:   Prohibition Rum-Runners Delivering A Boatload of Booze Were Foiled in Pelham in 1925.

Fri., Apr. 24, 2015:  The North Pelham "Speakeasy Section" Created Quite a Stir During Prohibition.

Tue., Nov. 18, 2014:  More Bootleggers and Speakeasies Raided in Pelham in 1929 During Prohibition.
Fri., May 23, 2014:  How Dry I Am -- Early Prohibition Efforts Succeed in Pelham in 1896.

Thu., Apr. 03, 2014:  The Prohibition Era in Pelham:  Another Speakeasy Raided.

Tue., Feb. 18, 2014:  Pelham Speakeasies and Moonshiners - Prohibition in Pelham: The Feds Raid the Moreau.

Thu., Feb. 07, 2008:  Village Elections in Pelham in 1900 - New York Athletic Club Members Campaign Against the Prohibition Ticket in Pelham Manor.

Thu., Jan. 12, 2006:  The Beer Battle of 1933.

Thu., Aug. 11, 2005:  How Dry I Am: Pelham Goes Dry in the 1890s and Travers Island Is At the Center of a Storm. 

Bell, Blake A., The Prohibition Era in Pelham, The Pelham Weekly, Vol. XIII, No. 25, June 18, 2004, p. 12, col. 2.

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Murder in Pelhamville on the New Haven Line Tracks in 1859

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Like most communities, the little Town of Pelham has been the scene of some grisly and horrific crimes over the course of its history.  Two such crimes include the terrible murder and dismemberment of the captain of the Eudora Imogene in 1854 and the most terrible murder mystery in Pelham history:  the unsolved killing of wealthy Pelham Heights resident Julius Rosenheimer in 1905 in the garden of his home once located on the present site of the Pelham Picture House.

One terrible crime committed in 1859 was the murder of E. A. Patterson of the tiny settlement of Pelhamville as he walked along the tracks of the New Haven Main Line.  Patterson was described as "one of the quietest and most inoffensive citizens" of the settlement of Pelhamville which, at the time, was only eight years old and populated with only a few dozen residents.  

On Friday, September 9, 1859, Mr. Patterson had business in nearby New Rochelle.  As was so often the case in those days, the easiest and quickest way to travel to New Rochelle was to walk along the New Haven Line railroad tracks.  In those days, heavy woods extended from the Pelhamville Depot on both sides of the railroad tracks.  (Neither Pelhamwood nor Pelham Heights had yet been developed.)  The old Boston Post Road (today's Colonial Avenue) was an out-of-the-way route into New Rochelle that added substantial time to the trip as travelers had to plod along Wolf's Lane to the old Boston Post Road then turn east into New Rochelle.  Thus, E. A. Patterson traveled to and from New Rochelle along the railroad tracks that day.

In the evening, as he walked home to Pelhamville along the tracks, he came upon three men just as he reached Pelhamville.  Indeed, the men were no more than five hundred yards from the little station that, at the time, stood where today's Pelham National Bank building stands at One Wolfs Lane.  One man was sitting and two were standing along the tracks at the top of a forty or fifty foot high embankment along which the tracks ran.  The men had five or six dead white geese they had decapitated and that authorities later believed had been stolen nearby.  Due to the embankment, it was not an easy task simply to avoid the men.

Patterson tried to walk past the men.  As he did, they began following him and used a stone to knock him down.  The group set upon the poor man, saying they would murder him and beating him nearly senseless.  Once the men had disabled Patterson, they lifted him and tried to "heave" him down the stony embankment.  When that failed, they kicked or dragged him down the embankment where one of the men, in an act of extreme depravity, used a stone to drive the senseless man's head between two large rocks.  One of the men then jumped on the poor man until he was dead.  The three then rifled through his pockets and stole four or five dollars, a pen knife, a pocket handkerchief, and "sundry small articles."

It appears from one brief news report that the three men were eventually identified.  Although the eventual fate of the murderers is unknown, by October (according to one account) "one of the suspected persons [had] been arrested and [was] in jail at White Plains."  

 Map of Pelhamville Published in 1868. Source:   Beers, F.W.,

Atlas of New York and Vicinity from Actual Surveys By and Under

the Direction of F.W. Beers, Assisted By A.B. Prindle & Others, pg.

36 (NY, NY:  Beers, Ellis & Soule, 1868) (Detail from Page 36 Map

Entitled "Town of New Rochelle, Westchester Co., N.Y. (With) Pelhamville).

NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

*          *          *          *          *

"MURDER IN WESTCHESTER COUNTY. -- The Tribune learns from a correspondent at Pelhamville, Westchester Co., N.Y., Sept. 12th, 1859, that on Friday evening, Sept. 9, one of the quietest and most inoffensive citizens, Mr. E. A. Patterson, went to New Rochelle on some business; on his return home to Pelhamville, on the New York and New Haven Railroad track, when within 500 yards of Pelhamville Depot, he met three negroes [sic], one sitting and two standing, they having five or six white geese, with their heads twisted off, supposed to be stolen; as Mr. Patterson passed them, they immediately started after him, knocked him down with a stone, then commenced to murder him, as they themselves said they would; having disabled the sufferer, they took him and attempted to heave him down a rough stone embankment, 40 or 50 feet deep; not succeeding, they followed and kicked or drove the victim down the embankment with stones, their feet and fists.  By this time his senses began to fail.  When he was driven to the bottom of this awful precipice, one of them struck him with a large stone, and drove his head in between two large rocks.  While in that position they broke the guard of his watch, and let it fall among the stones under him; while doing so one of them jumped on him several times; they then searched and rifled his pockets of between four and five dollars, pen knife, pocket handkerchief, and sundry small articles.

Warrants have been issued for the arrest of the negroes supposed to be implicated in the crime, and one of the suspected persons has been arrested and is now in jail at White Plains."

Source:   MURDER IN WESTCHESTER COUNTY, Hudson Daily Star, Sep. 21, 1859, Vol. XII, No. 3688, p. 2, col. 2.

"HORRIBLE MURDER IN WESTCHESTER CO. -- On Friday evening, Mr. E. A. Patterson, of Pelhamville, went to New-Rochelle on some business; on his return home, on the New York and New Haven Railroad track, when within 500 yards of Pelhamville Depot, he met three negroes who, as Mr. Patterson passed them immediately started after him, knocked him down with a stone, then commenced to murder him, as they themselves said they would; having disabled the sufferer, they took him and attempted to heave him down a rough stone embankment, 40 or 50 feet deep; not succeeding, they followed and kicked or drove the victim down the embankment.  When he was driven to the bottom of this awful precipice, one of them struck him with a large stone, and drove his head in between two large rocks. --  They then searched and rifled his pockets of between four and five dollars, pen-knife, pocket-handkerchief, and sundry small articles.  Warrants have been issued for the arrest of the negroes [sic], and one of the suspected persons has been arrested and is now in jail at White Plains."

Source:  HORRIBLE MURDER IN WESTCHESTER CO., The Tri-States Union [Port Jervis, NY], Oct. 6, 1859, Vol. 9, No. 49, p. 2, col. 4.

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North Pelham Officials Sued the Railroad in 1907 to Compel it to Change the Name of the Railroad Station

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A recent Historic Pelham article detailed efforts by Village of North Pelham officials in 1906 to resurrect the long and bitter fight with the Village of Pelham (Pelham Heights) over naming the Pelham Train Station.  See Thu., Oct. 5, 2017:  North Pelham Officials Wouldn't Let it Go:  1906 Resurrection of the Fight Over Naming the Train Station.  It had been more than a decade since Pelham Heights pulled a fast one and incorporated as the "Village of Pelham" while successfully having the name of the local train station changed from "Pelhamville Station" to "Pelham Station."  Yet, in 1906, the newly-elected President of the Village of North Pelham, Honest Jim Reilley, decided to pursue the matter again.

As noted at the conclusion of the recent article, Jim Reilley's efforts were rebuffed.  Yet, as the article concluded:

"President Reilley of the North Pelham Board was not finished.  The next morning he told a reporter that he was going to "compel" the railroad to change the station name.  He further said "We expected this action of the company, but the matter has not been dropped by any means." 

Though research has not yet revealed any further efforts by North Pelham officials to compel the railroad to change the name, clearly the effort eventually failed.  Today (and ever since 1896), the station is (and has been) known as the "Pelham Station."

Research now has revealed what followed.  True to his word, Honest Jim Reilley sought to compel the railroad to change the name of the station to "North Pelham Station."  He had the Village of North Pelham seek injunctive relief against the railroad to force it to change the name of the station.  It took nearly a year to resolve the legal claims that are the subject of today's Historic Pelham article.

In 1907, the Village of North Pelham already was in the midst of a nasty lawsuit against the New Haven Railroad trying to force it to move the west abutment of the Fifth Avenue Railroad Bridge rather than the east abutment.  See Fri., Oct. 06, 2017:  Early History of the Wolfs Lane Railroad Bridge on the New Haven Line in Pelham.  On March 25, 1907, Village President James Reilley and the Village Board instructed the Village Attorney, George P. Breckenridge, "to take steps to have the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad company change the name of the passenger station from Pelham to North Pelham."

It appears that Breckenridge used the lawsuit against the Railroad pending before New York Supreme Court Justice as the vehicle to assert an additional claim for injunctive relief against the railroad.  The parties battled the matter for nearly the next year.

In mid-January, 1908, Justice Tompkins denied the Village of North Pelham's claim for injunctive relief.  A local newspaper reported the matter succinctly:

"The decision of Justice Tompkins brings to an end the efforts of the board of trustees to have the name of this passenger station changed.  The matter has been in the courts for nearly two years.

Shortly after President Reilly took office he suggested that the name of the station should be changed from that of Pelham to North Pelham, on the ground that the station was nearer the dividing line of North Pelham than that of Pelham on the opposite tracks.  President Reilley also argued that the existence of North Pelham as a village was not designated on the railroad map.  For that reason, if for no other, he thought that the name should be changed.  He was upheld in his contention by the other trustees and Village Counsel Breckenridge was instructed to proceed legally."

This time the matter was laid to rest.  Research has revealed no further efforts by North Pelham to rewrite history and change the name of the train station to "North Pelham Station."

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"VILLAGE APPOINTMENTS
-----
Made at the Session of the Board of Trustees Last Night.

The annual meeting of the village trustees was held last night in the village hall, at which time the village clerk, village constables, highway commissioner and the village counsel were appointed for the year.  Incidentally, this was the first meeting of the new board after election and had to be held at the time specified according to law.  There is always great interest manifested in this meeting held after election in view of the appointments made.

James W. Caffrey was appointed clerk and will begin his sixth consecutive term in that office.  The following were appointed constables:  Eugene L. Lyon, William Robinson, John Costello, Joseph Burke and Walter King.  Vincent Barker was re-appointed highway commissioner, and George P. Breckenridge, village counsel.  The first Friday in each month was designated as the regular meeting night of the board which is the same night as that of the old board.  The Mount Vernon Trust company was designated as the depository of the village funds.

The village counsel was instructed to take steps to have the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad company change the name of the passenger station from Pelham to North Pelham.  It was also resolved that the clerk should instruct the Westchester Lighting company to install another light in Chester Park.  No further business the meeting adjourned.  After the meeting the ballot box matter was made known to the board."

Source:  VILLAGE APPOINTMENTS -- Made at the Session of the Board of Trustees Last Night, The Daily Argus [Mount Vernon, NY], Mar. 26, 1907, p. 3, col. 2.  

"NORTH PELHAM
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Want Name Changed.

A well known resident of this village stated yesterday to the Argus man that the majority of the residents want the name of the passenger station changed from Pelham to North Pelham.  It will be remembered that at the annual meeting of the board last Monday night Counsel George P. Breckenridge was instructed to take steps to have the name of the station changed.  According to the railroad law, it seems that the station should be named after the village in which it is located.  If this is so, there is no denying the fact that the name of the passenger station should be North Pelham instead of Pelham.  This resident said it is not a very pleasant thing to feel that the village in which one lives, and which has a passenger station, is not listed in the New York, New Haven and Hartford time table.  Under existing conditions this person believed that it should be so listed and that it was an injustice to the residents of the village to have the passenger station known as Pelham instead of North Pelham."

Source:  NORTH PELHAM -- Want Name Changed, The Daily Argus [Mount Vernon, NY], Mar. 30, 1907, p. 4, col. 5. 

"NOT TO CHANGE STATION NAME
-----

North Pelham, Jan. 15. -- The name of the passenger station located at Pelham on the New Haven road, will not be designated as North Pelham, for Supreme Court Justice Tompkins has denied a motion made by Village Counsel George P. Breckenridge to compel the road to change the name of the station from Pelham to that of North Pelham.

The decision of Justice Tompkins brings to an end the efforts of the board of trustees to have the name of this passenger station changed.  The matter has been in the courts for nearly two years.

Shortly after President Reilly took office he suggested that the name of the station should be changed from that of Pelham to North Pelham, on the ground that the station was nearer the dividing line of North Pelham than that of Pelham on the opposite tracks.  President Reilley also argued that the existence of North Pelham as a village was not designated on the railroad map.  For that reason, if for no other, he thought that the name should be changed.  He was upheld in his contention by the other trustees and Village Counsel Breckenridge was instructed to proceed legally."

Source:  NOT TO CHANGE STATION NAME, The Daily Argus [Mount Vernon, NY], Jan. 15, 1908, p. 5, col. 4. 

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More on the Early History of the Wolfs Lane Railroad Bridge on the New Haven Line in Pelham

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Recently I wrote about the fascinating history of the Wolfs Lane Railroad Overpass long known as the "Fifth Avenue Bridge" that carries the New Haven Main Line tracks over Wolfs Lane adjacent to the Pelham National Bank Building at One Wolfs Lane.  See Friday, October 06, 2017 Early History of the Wolfs Lane Railroad Bridge on the New Haven Line in Pelham.  Additional research now has revealed even more about the earliest efforts to have such a railroad overpass built at that location.  It now seems clear that efforts began in 1882 and ripened into a petition reportedly prepared for submission to the railroad in 1884.  Today's Historic Pelham article will detail the new research.

The earliest efforts to create a railroad overpass with the roadway running beneath it seem to have begun in about 1882.  A brief report (that will require a little explanation after quoting it) appeared in a local newspaper in 1884 and read as follows:

"A petition is in circulation, and has already been largely signed, asking that Pelhamdale avenue, where it crosses the New Haven Railroad track at Pelhamville, be cut through under the track at Pelhamville, be cut through under the track.  It is understood that the town of Pelham and the railroad company are to bear an equal share of the expense.  About two years ago, an interview was had with President Watrous, on the subject, and he then promised to use his influence towards accomplishing the object.  The crossing in question is probably one of the most dangerous on the road, as the approach from either side is up a steep grade, and incoming trains cannot be seen until one is upon the track.  This matter of cutting down the hill, so as to run underneath the track, is a subject that should have been considered years ago and it is a marvel that accidents have not been of frequent occurrence."

Source:  PELHAM AND CITY ISLAND, The Chronicle [Mount Vernon, NY], Jul. 4, 1884, Vol. XV, No. 772, p. 3, col. 5.  

The above-quoted reference may seem odd to those who read it carefully.  It states that the petition seeks to have PELHAMDALE AVENUE (rather than Wolfs Lane) lowered beneath the New Haven Main Line tracks.  Some may wonder:  is this the Pelhamdale Avenue that we know today -- an avenue that does not cross over or under the tracks but, instead, ends at East 1st Street in Pelham Heights at the railroad tracks adjacent to East 1st Street?

As noted by Lockwood Barr in his History of Pelham published in 1946, the 1881 Bromley Map of the area seems to provide the answer.  In the early 1880s, Pelhamdale followed a very different path from the path it now follows through Pelham Heights to the railroad tracks.  The neighborhood of Pelham Heights, of course, did not exist in the early 1880s; there were no roadways through the virgin forest in that area including that portion of what we know today as Pelhamdale Avenue that extends across Colonial Avenue and heads straight to the New Haven Main Line tracks.  Instead, in the early 1880s, Pelhamdale Avenue crossed today's Colonial Avenue and immediately made a diagonal turn toward today's Wolfs Lane, cutting across the back section of today's high school property until it reached what we know as Wolfs Lane roughly at Second Street in today's Pelham Heights (near today's Pelham Picture House).  At the time, Pelhamdale Avenue then merged with what we know today as Wolfs Lane.  Thus, the above-quoted reference to the petition in 1882 "asking that Pelhamdale avenue, where it crosses the New Haven Railroad track at Pelhamville, be cut through under the track at Pelhamville" is, indeed, a reference to a cut-through where the roadway was lowered and a railroad overpass actually was built several years later.

As Lockwood Barr stated:

"There was no trail or early road across the Town of Pelham, that would correspond to the present Pelhamdale Avenue. When Elbert Roosevelt, in 1800, purchased his tract of 250 acres on the Mainland, opposite Travers Island and Hunter's Island, the northern boundary of his property was evidently an old dirt road--now Pelhamdale Avenue--beginning at the Shore Road, near the present boundary line between New Rochelle and the Village of Pelham Manor, and running north to where is now Hillcrest. When the New Haven Railroad, Harlem Division, opened the Pelham Manor Station in 1873, Pelhamdale was extend.ed from the Shore Road to that Railroad Station, and reached the Boston Post Road soon thereafter, as is shown on maps of The Pelham Manor & Huguenot Heights Association.

"On the Bromley map of the Town of Pelham, dated 1881, Pelhamdale then crossed Colonial Avenue, diagonally through the back corner of the present High School property, intersecting Wolf Lane near 2nd Street, Village of Pelham, not far from the Pelham Picture House. On this old map that section of the Village of Pelham (now The Heights), between 2nd Street and Colonial, appeared the name "Pelhamdale" while the word "Avenue" was in Pelham Manor. The road was named from the old Philip Pell stone house, called Pelham Dale. When Pelham Heights was developed, after 1890, and the Village of Pelham incorporated in 1896, the diagonal cut was eliminated and Pelhamdale was cut through to the New Haven Main Line Railroad Station."

Source:  Barr, Lockwood Anderson, A Brief, But Most Complete & True Account of the Settlement of the Ancient Town of Pelham Westchester County, State of New York Known One Time Well & Favourably as the Lordshipp & Manour of Pelham Also The Story of the Three Modern Villages Called The Pelhams, pp. 118-19 (The Dietz Press, Inc. 1946).

A look at a detail from the 1881 Bromley map certainly confirms the conclusions of Lockwood Barr.  The detail immediately below has been rotated from the original so that due North is at the top of the image.

Detail of 1881 Map of Pelham Showing "Pelhamdal" [sic],

Immediately East of Esplanade, Following a Course of 

Crossing "Old Post Road" (Today's Colonial Avenue) and

Drifting Northeast Across Grounds That Became Today's

Pelham Memorial High School, Then Joining "FIFTH AVE"

At About Where Today's East Second Street Intersects

Wolfs Lane Near the Modern Picture House.

NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

Clearly the reference published in 1884 to efforts to create a cut under the New Haven Main Line tracks where "Pelhamdale Avenue" intersected the tracks was a reference to the very spot where a modern railroad overpass stands to this day.

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Only Months After its Founding in 1851, Pelhamville Suffered its First Fatal Railroad Accident

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In September 1851, the New Haven line railroad tracks through Pelham were not quite three years old.  The tiny settlement of Pelhamville, through which New Haven line trains passed, was only a few months old.  The New-York Daily Times, known today as The New York Times, was only a few days old when it reported on a gruesome railroad accident in Pelhamville -- believed to be the first fatal railroad accident in the Town of Pelham.

On the evening of Monday, September 22, 1851, the engineer of a New-Haven Line passenger train looked ahead on the tracks as he approached the tiny settlement of Pelhamville.  As the steam locomotive with its massive cow-catcher clickety-clacked down the tracks pulling several passenger cars, the engineer saw a man standing on the tracks ahead of the train.  

The engineer pulled the cord and sounded the blaring steam whistle of the locomotive.  The man on the tracks ahead, however, seemed to pay no attention to the whistle.  The engineer tried to throw the engine into reverse but it was too late.  The massive iron cow-catcher struck the man in the legs and killed him.

The body of the unidentified man was carried to the New-York Hospital, once located on the west side of Broadway between what are presently Worth Street and Duane Street.  The following morning New York City Coroner, Seth Geer, M.D., held an inquest in the matter.  The engineer of the locomotive at the time of the accident was sworn and deposed.  The engineer testified that:

"on the night in question he was in charge of the engine attached to a passenger train of cars on the New-Haven Railroad, and while approaching the village of Pelhamvile, he saw a man standing on the track, and instantly sounded the whistle, to which he paid no attention.  Witness then endeavored to reverse the locomotive, but could not accomplish it until the cow-catcher had struck deceased in the legs."

At the conclusion of the inquest, the Coroner's Jury immediately returned a verdict of accidental death, finding "That the deceased came to his death by accidentally coming in contact with a locomotive engine on the New-Haven Railroad, when near Pelhamville, Westchester county."

The deceased was about 45 years old and "could not be identified by any person."  The name of the first person to die of a railroad accident in Pelham is now lost to history.

Engraving Depicting Steam Locomotive and Cars Near the

Tunnel at New Hamburg on the Hudson Line.  The Train Likely is

Nearly Identical to the One that Killed a Man Along the Tracks in

Pelhamville on September 22, 1851.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

*          *          *          *          *

The newspaper article that forms the basis for today's Historic Pelham article appears immediately below.  It is followed by a citation and link to its source.

"THE NEW-HAVEN RAILROAD ACCIDENT. -- Coroner Geer proceeded to the New-York Hospital yesterday morning, and held an inquest upon the body of the unknown man who was killed on the New-Haven railway on Monday night, and noticed in yesterday's Times.  The engineer of the locomotive was sworn, and deposed, that on the night in question he was in charge of the engine attached to a passenger train of cars on the New-Haven Railroad, and while approaching the village of Pelhamvile, he saw a man standing on the track, and instantly sounded the whistle, to which he paid no attention.  Witness then endeavored to reverse the locomotive, but could not accomplish it until the cow-catcher had struck deceased in the legs.  The deceased was about 45 years of age, and could not be identified by any person; and the jury returned the annexed verdict -- 'That the deceased came to his death by accidentally coming in contact with a locomotive engine on the New-Haven Railroad, when near Pelhamville, Westchester county.'"

Source:  THE NEW-HAVEN RAILROAD ACCIDENT, New-York Daily Times, Sep. 25, 1851, Vol. I, No. 7, p. 1, col. 3 (Note:  Paid subscription required to access via this link).  

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